Hoff is PAL JOEY with Channing and Plimpton

[being.jeremiah]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:20pm

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/118843.html

"Christian Hoff, the Tony Award winner for playing the charismatic and tough Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys, will be Pal Joey for Roundabout Theatre Company this fall. He'll bewitch and bother Oscar nominee Stockard Channing as cougar Vera Simpson in the revised version of the groundbreaking 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical.

Tony Award nominee Martha Plimpton (Top Girls) will play Gladys Bumps, a role that has been reinvented in a new script revision by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain). Richard Rodgers wrote the music; Lorenz Hart wrote the lyrics. John O'Hara penned the original libretto, based on his short stories that ran in the New Yorker."
Updated On: 6/19/08 at 05:20 PM

[folkyboy]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:24pm

what a cast! i already wanted to see this but WOW! Roundabout knocks it out of the park again!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:25pm

I like Stockard Channing as an actress, but vocally she's not strong enough to sing "B,B, & B".

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:29pm

I can't even begin to describe how excited I am to see this. I think I am looking forward to this production more than any other of the coming season.

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:32pm

Ugh. Stockard has the best song in the show, she better nail it.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:38pm

Love the show but am disappointed with casting of Hoff. I'll go anyway, but the Encores! production with Lupone and Peter Gallagher used the original text and it worked just fine. And I'm not sure if reassigning the Zip number to Gladys is a good idea -- Gladys is a real low-life who wouldn't have the foggiest idea who Noel Coward, Stravinsky, or, for that matter, Gypsy Rose Lee were. I mean, the verse, sung by a reporter, says "my greatest achievement of all I've known was a star who worked at Minsky's" or words to that effect. I would assume that any lyrics referring to a reporter would be changed. And Larry Hart don't need no help from no one, when it comes to the lyric department. Just let it play as written. And put a real dancer in the title role, not someone who might know some dance steps.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:39pm

How are they reinventing the role of Gladys? She has some of the best songs in the show. Does Plimpton sing? I'm more nervous than excited.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:48pm

"Zip" is performed in Greenberg's revision as an onstage nightclub number.

[defyingravity07]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:52pm

I can honestly say I thought this was about Carol Channing & The Hoff.

[mattnyc2]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 6:03pm

David Hasselhoff and Carol Channing in a musical together? Now that's something I'd pay to see!

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 6:05pm

What a stellar cast! Will definitely have to check it out.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 6:05pm

Can he dance?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 7:20pm

From what I've seen of Graciela Daniele's "choreography," it doesn't seem like one would need much experience to achieve it.

I'm surprised they chose her of all people to choreograph this show.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 7:49pm

Just a reminder. The two most successful Joeys in this country ever were Gene Kelly and Harold Lang -- two GREAT dancers. When they start casting non-dancers in the role, the show loses.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 7:49pm

I do this as rarely as possible (and I was UTTERLY wrong and apologized for "Xanadu") but this sounds like everything I hate about these cheap revivals. Done by people who were available and could fit it into their schedule rather than people who were perfect for the role. A non-dancer and perhaps the worst choreographer they could possibly have chosen will be handed one of the greatest shows for a brilliant dancer and they will churn out... sludge.

It won't be anything more than an approximation, and a pale one at that.

I am bothered, bewildered and ticked off.

Updated On: 6/20/08 at 07:49 PM

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 7:51pm

My thoughts EXACTLY, allofmylife.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 7:54pm

Let's hope is sort of slips past and we can spend another bunch of years wishing someone would do a great, serious, accurate revival of "Pal Joey."

I was hoping R&H would want to do justice to the piece. It's not exactly a lost show. After "South Pacific" you'd think they'd want to do a similar prestige piece with a crown jewel like this.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 8:06pm

I think it's a great cast, but I'm also worried about Hoff not being a dancer... meaning will they cut the dancing from this character?

The problem is that this Joey is a jerk (no, not our PJ!), but the leading character "Pal" Joey.

The reason the show worked to begin with was Gene Kelly's charm, good looks... and DANCING. He won audiences over with his grace and body language, at the same time he was screwing everyone over to get what he wanted in life.

Hoff's got 2 out of 3 going for him, but cut the dance, and you cut a MAJOR part of the character's appeal. And I'm not sure any actor would be strong enough to win the battle, as others have pointed out here. It just doesn't work well at all.

You'd be left with a show about a real jerk... that ultimately no one would care about.

But as "personalities" I love the three choices, and I really hope they can pull this off.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 8:19pm

I will say this on Hoff's behalf...

As many good (killer) dancers as their are out there, I can't think of one that has his "lady killer" charm and earthy charisma.

It would be equally terrible (if not worse?) to have a wonderful dancer in the role who opened his mouth and left audiences limp.

[A Grey Spring]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 8:32pm

Great cast! I just hope Channing can knock B, B & B out of the park.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 8:35pm

Calling him Hoff is a little confusing. I guess they're not calling him the Hoff, but I still did a double take.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 8:40pm

Huh? What theatre actor is THE Hoff?

He's the only Tony Award Winner with the last name Hoff.

Who else would it logically be?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 8:41pm

LOL.

What theatre actor is THE Hoff?

Well, there's a theatre "actor."

[allofmylife]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 10:46pm

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote this show with Gene Kelly in mind.

He was not an unknown entity at the time. Remember back then how incredibly important Broadway was to the American entertainment industry.

A kid with Kelly's talents would have been recognized years before by the Broadway equivalent of baseball scouts. He had appeared in two shows on Broadway and had choreographed numbers for several shows.

Robert Alton had been a hoofer himself, all the way back to the early 1920s and knew every talented kid in the biz. All of this by way of saying R&H(version 1) knew who they were getting and crafted a show around him.

This is a dancer's show. This was Gene Kelly's show. If Christian Hoff has the balls to say he has talents equal to the guy this show was written for, then I'll pay to see him. If he says "I have other talents" I'll say "So has Paulo Szot, but I wouldn't pay to see him in Pal Joey."

Harold Lang and Bob Friggin' Fossee have played this role. I smell dancer, not singer who moves.

Finally, to prove my point, watch this footage again and tell me that Christian Hoff has the talents Gene Kelly had (and also see how Gene was dancing in 1933. As A KID he was amazing).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsvDiqzSUBQ

[scaryclowns223]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 10:50pm

Do we know for a fact that Christian Hoff can't dance?

I mean, he has never proved to us he can't.

Innocent until proven guilty is what I say.